The long-awaited epic historic drama, The Woman King, about an all-female warrior squad in the 1800s who protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), opens nationwide tomorrow.

In an exclusive round-table discussion with director Gina Prince-Bythewood and stars Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, John Boyega, Sheila Atim and Lashana Lynch, they breakdown their filming experience in Mzansi:

Prince-Bythewood on why Mbedu was cast as Nawi

Thuso is truly a generational talent and she’s truly so special. At first, before I cast her, The Underground Railroad had not come out and I cast her based on her audition, which was an immediate thing. I immediately connected with her; she has this innate vulnerability that separates someone who is really good and someone who is a star.

I immediately cared about her. Her performance chops were so good and then she met with Viola and that was such an incredible conversation. Viola even said, “I didn’t even know her, but I feel maternal toward her ”. So we knew she had the chops, but she had never done athletics whatsoever. So how can she embody Nawi, this little feisty warrior?

So I had her meet with Danny Hernandez, our stunt co-ordinator, to see if she had anything we can build on. It was supposed to be an hour of just assessment, but it turned into two hours because she just kept asking to learn more. We knew that kind of mentality is what we need. So I cast her based on that. My admiration and love for her just continued to grow.

Mbedu on the pride she had filming in KZN

[The history of the locations mattered] especially the first two weeks of shooting in KwaZulu-Natal before we went to Cape Town, both spaces have different historical narrative. In Zululand there is still an active monarchy … and I’ve also had the privilege of being shown the history of what the monarchy has done for KZN. So finding out we are going to start production in a space that understands the story we are telling was meaningful to me.

Obviously, KZN has a lot of untouched land hence being able to see the animals and greenery. Whereas in Cape Town it’s where we created the palace, that’s where we saw the castle.

The locations were very significant. Like Viola always says, 'location became a character in the story'. Prince-Bythewood on why she chose SA as the backdrop for the film. We wanted to be on the continent to shoot this and Cape Town gave us the infrastructure and ability to build. We wanted to build the whole palace.

I wanted to give the actors a 360 [degree] playground and I also wanted that playground. But we also shot a couple of weeks in KZN, where Thuso is from, and it was amazing for her to go back to her homeland. That gave us more the feel of West Africa and the ability to go wide and show scope. I knew I couldn’t do that in Atlanta.

Davis on experiencing divine intervention on set

When we were shooting in KZN, we were doing the ceremony scene and it started to rain and we had no time, it looked like this pivotal scene in the film is done and over – it was a disaster. We had to stop shooting, the drummers went to the side, the extras were carted off and it was just pouring. Suddenly, I could hear the drummers talking and they began to play.

All the extras ran out, about 300 of them, and they began to dance in the mud. They tried to cart them off and they just kept laughing and singing almost to the sky. The song was about stopping the rain. Not only did the rain stop, but all of our hearts stopped beating. This only comes from a people who are steeped in ritual and life bigger than themselves. It was like a divine God experience.

Atim on her character Amenza rooted in African spirituality

I did have a Zoom session with a specialist in voodoo, which is the spiritual practice in Benin. There was some research into the different gods and deities that would have been revered at that time...I just wanted to make sure I was respecting those cultures, practice and beliefs as much as I can. I also watched YouTube videos of people divining and I practised in my hotel room. I think it’s good for the world to see these practices… they have been cast in a light that is quite derogatory and called “blackmagic” with a sinister undertone.